A new way to get tickets fixed

By Gloria Padilla :
March 14, 2014
: Updated: March 14, 2014 5:16pm

The driver pictured here received only a warning. But when tickets are issued by county law enforcement, lawyers and defendants find it's more efficient to appeal traffic tickets out of Bexar County justice of the peace courts.

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SAN ANTONIO — The number of traffic cases being appealed out of Bexar County justice of the peace courts skyrocketed last fiscal year, raising questions about whether these courts are being operated as efficiently as they should.

Lawyers and defendants are finding it more efficient and economical to appeal traffic tickets out of justice of the peace courts than deal with the system at that level.

A heavy work volume in the county's justice courts often results in defendants lining outside the courtroom door before the doors open. Motorists cited for speeding can spend two to four hours waiting to have their cases heard and then end up paying an average of about $190. The other option is to hire a lawyer for about $150 to file an appeal, which means no waiting in line, deferred adjudication, making a small donation to a local charity and no permanent blemish on a driving record.

It is no wonder that in fiscal year 2012-2013, there were 6,405 cases appealed out of the justice of the peace courts in Bexar County, according to the Texas Office of Court Administration. Of those, 5,055 were traffic related. That compares to only 1,253 appeals filed out of the JP courts during the previous year, including 789 which were traffic citations.

Interestingly, appeals are almost nonexistent out of San Antonio Municipal Court, which also does a high volume of traffic tickets-related business. State records indicate there were fewer than 10 appeals out of municipal court since 2000.

The big difference between the two is that San Antonio's municipal court is a court of record, and the Bexar County justice of the peace courts are not. More time and money are involved when appealing from a court of record because a transcript is needed and there needs to be a petition filed stating the reason for the appeal.

Many of the appealed JP cases languish for more than a year before they are heard. It takes few months for them to get transferred to the county courthouse, and then it takes another several months for them to make it on a docket. No one seems to mind or pay much attention to the low-rung criminal matters.

The caseload gets rotated among the county court judges on a monthly basis. Last week, the settings on such cases were well into next year. When I started asking about them, several judges were surprised; they said they did not give much thought to those cases. One said judges viewed it as a good way to funnel money to worthy charities. The appeals became a topic of discussion at this week's county court judges meeting, prompting an internal look at the numbers and what might be behind them.

We welcome the interest. It is time someone started paying closer attention and find a way to stem the flow of appeals from the lower court. Bexar County commissioners created two new justice of the peace posts last fall, and the JPs are now better equipped than ever to take care of these cases.

A defendant's right to an appeal cannot be minimized, but something is wrong when appeals become the standard course of action and a budding cottage industry for some lawyers. It is difficult to blame anyone for taking advantage of the situation when there is nothing to lose and no cost attached. Over in municipal court, defendants seeking an appeal face a cost of about $325 to cover filing fees, a transcript and appeal bond, which means only the most serious of cases get appealed — and that is the way it should be.

It's an awful waste of taxpayer money to have law enforcement officers issuing traffic tickets just to have those tickets routed through a bureaucratic appeal process involving at least four different government departments with the end result being less than a slap on the wrist.